- Pending home sales cancellations in the U.S. reached a record 15% in June.
- Redfin attributes cancellations to economic uncertainty and a buyer's market with more options.
- California and Sunbelt states saw the highest cancellation rates, driven by high prices and mortgage rates.
SALT LAKE CITY — Almost 15% of all pending home sales nationwide were canceled in June, a record number for this time of year, a new Redfin analysis shows.
"Some buyers are backing out during the inspection period because a better home comes along, and some are nervous about making a major purchase in uncertain economic times," the Seattle-based online brokerage concluded.
More than 57,000 home sale agreements nationwide fell through in June, 14.9% of the properties that went under contract that month. That's an increase of 1 percentage point over the same month last year, and the highest share of failed sales since tracking began in 2017.
Of the 44 largest U.S. metro areas analyzed by Redfin, the highest increases in cancellations were in California. Anaheim saw 15.2% of deals fail in June 2025, compared to 12.6% a year earlier, and in Los Angeles, 17.1% of home sales were canceled compared to 14.7%.
Just seven of those metro areas, which do not include any place in Utah, saw fewer sales ended in June compared to the same month last year. Two of the biggest declines were recorded in Florida, in Fort Lauderdale and Orlando, while Denver saw the second-biggest drop.
The nation's highest cancellation rates are all in Sunbelt states, Redfin found. Topping the list is Jacksonville, Fla., where 21.4%, or more than 1 in 5 sales fell through in June. Las Vegas was next, with a 19.7% cancellation rate, followed by Atlanta, at 19.6% failed sales.
The reason most of the country is seeing sales canceled at a higher rate is largely because real estate has become a buyer's market, with hundreds of thousands more sellers than buyers, according to Redfin.
More options makes it easier for buyers to change their minds if, for example, an inspection turns up issues they'd rather not deal with or they spot another house on the market that they like better.
But financial uncertainty is taking a toll, too. Prices continue to remain high for homes, and mortgage rates are still close to 7%, meaning some buyers run into sticker shock when they see what their monthly payments will be.
A recent Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics poll showed President Donald Trump's ever-changing tariff policies have made nearly half of Utahns hesitate about buying big-ticket items like a home, similar to what pollsters found nationwide this spring.
The new data from Redfin comes as inflation is on the rise, boosting U.S. prices on goods and services at a 2.7% annual rate in June. It was the highest rate in four months and seen as possibly the first sign of tariff impacts.
